Korea Legalizes Bitcoin South Africa Regulates BTC Trump Trade Impacts Latin America and DubaiCoin
Hi to fellow subscribers and new viewers. It is now Saturday July 22st in the United States. My name is Nick and welcome to @Sobuka. I will try to give general, global news with respect to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. If you are new to this channel, the areas that my channel will focus on is Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and the South Asian Pacific.
Disclaimer: This channel/blog does not give financial advice. Please talk to a financial advisor when investing in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies carry a lot of risk.
So starting with Latin America… This is a topic that keeps on coming up over and over again in the United States (US). So I will continue to talk about it here on this blog. Early this year, CT (Coin Telegraph) news tied Bitcoins surge across Latin America with the Trump Era. This should not be a surprise as the new US administration are still sounding the alarm towards renegotiating trade policies with Asia and Latin American countries. The July 19th article by Reuters titled “US, Canada, Mexico agree on fast-paced NAFTA talks” mentions how a trade agreement will be reached by the end of next year before Mexico’s 2018 presidential elections. But while all this is happening, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are still seeing steady growth in Bitcoin trading across LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. And in Chile, Columbia, and Venezuela the Bitcoin volume has increased by several folds. The Steemit article that I posted about a week and a half ago, depicts the rise in Bitcoin volume. This data was derived by help from coin.dance.
In the west, we continue to hear of Bitcoin meetups growing in places like Mexico, and while Argentina is becoming the Latin American capital of a growing Bitcoin community. You do not have to look too far: Just look at the FB + Argentina support that Bitcoin is getting.
Bitcoin has become a symbol of flexible remittances as US and international financial policies remain stringent with money transfers. In addition, with a devaluation of local currencies, Bitcoin has been a decent hedge for all Latin American countries for the past two years. So with the Trump trade almost over or baked into the markets, it's now a question of what global catalyst is left to impact Bitcoin. Anyones guess at this point could include more bank closings as we have seen with big private banks in Latin America and Europe just this year. Also there are questionable defaults with some United States pension systems. You also have the migrant situation as a possible catalyst that might affect the EU's financial system. All I can say as of this time is that there are a number of questionable factors all around. And though this uncertainty is sad, it's however bullish for Bitcoin. What are your thoughts?
The next news with respect to Africa, comes from South Africa. South Africa wants to experiment with Bitcoin regulations. They have asked a blockchain-based solutions provider in South Africa called Bankymoon to test digital currency regulations and to help understand its growing trend. There is no specific set of test that I know of at this time that will be applied onto their sandbox experiment. But if I find out, I will try to keep you guys posted on this blog. But word in the business community is that these regulations will help to legitimize Bitcoin for people in the financial system, merchants, and businesses. It will also help the government to understand cryptocurrencies growing trend in its region. So one has to wonder how or what the South African government will do with the growing trend data with respect to their own fiat currency?! I’ll leave that for you guys to think about. But more importantly, please feel to comment.
[Before reading the following section, just to note and it's confusing: This DubaiCoin is already trading. It is listed on CoinMarketCap at about $10.40 at the time of this video/blog post. It has been trading since April 6th of this year.] Looking into the Middle East, there is talks of a Bitcoin like cryptocurrency to lead the Middle East on its first public block chain. Saudi entrepreneur Mohammed Alsehli is now trying to replicate Bitcoin’s success in the Arab world through his company ArabianChain Technology and DubaiCoin-DBIX. The author of the article, Ismaeel Naar says this might end up being the Middle East’s first digital currency. This news comes from Al Arabiya Dot Com. The name of the coin is “DubaiCoin”. It can be programmed to represent shares of a company or vote in an election. The DubaiCoin is running on a platform called ArabianChain which is supposedly the first public and decentralized blockchain in the Arab world. For this blockchain to be running it needs to be fueled with DubaiCoin to provide the necessary gas. This setup is actually not like Bitcoin but almost like how Ethereum is setup to behave. The company thus far has raised about $800,000 US dollars. In addition, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi said in February of this year that it had become the first bank in the Middle East and North Africa to adopt this technology. So what we are seeing is the Middle East trying to play catch up with blockchain technology. The entrepreneur, Mohammed Alsehli quotes by saying, “These kinds of shifts are normal, so change is inevitable. It is going to happen. But the question is: are we prepared and ready for them? How do we stay relevant in this big storm of change around the world.” I think what we are seeing guys is more countries trying to set up their own public blockchain. We already see it in the US with Ethereum, China with Antshares, and the UK with Ubiq. As always, please let me know what you guys think of this coin and its chain.
Last news of today is on South Korea. Supposedly they have legalized Bitcoin but not as aggressive as Japan. This however will provide a huge market for traders. CT recently broke this news early this morning. Article quotes, “South Korea has officially legalized international Bitcoin transfers and is on the verge of providing a regulatory framework for Bitcoin trading platforms and exchanges.” The South Koreans government simply asks that companies retain a sufficient amount of liquidity and maintain KYC and AML rules and standards to help deter fraud and illegal activities. The legalization extends towards remittances and payments. According to what CT is saying, “the South Korean Bitcoin exchange market processes over 14 percent of global Bitcoin trades, the third largest market behind the US and Japan.” Thus far in the US, we have heard of a lot of countries adopt and legalize Bitcoin. This obviously sounds like great news. If you guys have any comments about this specific news please feel free to share.
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Below are helpful references towards our discussion.
US, Canada, and Mexico Agree on Fast Paced NAFTA Talks.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-nafta-exclusive-idUSKBN1A41PU
South African Central Bank To Start Bitcoin Regulation Experiment.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-african-central-bank-to-start-bitcoin-regulation-experiment
Is the Middle East Ready For Its Own Version of Bitcoin.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/technology/2017/07/16/Is-the-Middle-East-ready-for-its-own-version-of-bitcoin-.html
South Korean Officially Legalizes Bitcoin Huge Market For Traders.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-officially-legalizes-bitcoin-huge-market-for-traders
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